From the generic German patent application DE 10 2010 034 674 A1, a method for simultaneous multi-track slicing of several food products is known, wherein a common product scanner is provided which extends transversely to the conveying direction across all tracks. The product scanner is operated by the use of X-rays and simultaneously irradiates several food products being disposed on different parallel tracks.
Furthermore, a method for generating weight-specific food portions is known from DE 10 2005 010 183 A1, wherein several food bars are simultaneously irradiated prior to slicing, and wherein during irradiation of the respective food bar, there is preferably a certain distance food between the food bars.
It is known from DE 101 46 155 A1 to have a sensor in the form of a scanner be provided above the supply belt of an automated cutting device for cutting food products, with the aid of which the width of the individual products, or alternatively, the total width of the adjacently positioned products can be determined, where the products are passed through the sensor in parallel and at the same time.
The above scanners, however, are expensive because they must be designed relatively large to irradiate the products. Furthermore, when using X-rays for scanning, a certain distance must advantageously be maintained between the products, as there may otherwise be interactions between the values measured for each product. This is achieved, for example, in that a certain distance is maintained between the individual conveyor tracks in the scanner. Before the products are supplied to a common downstream cutting device, however, they must usually again be moved back closer together so that they can be sliced by a common cutting blade.
Several food products can be weighed together after scanning, where the individual weight of each food product is then calculated using the properties of the individual products determined during scanning, for example, using the volume of individual products or the area sums of various receptacles of the individual product.